Welders are known that deposit a hard facing on a metallic surface. These welders have been labor intensive; that is, the deposited material has been in the form of welding rods before deposition which rods are inserted in a rod guide. As each rod became used, a new rod was manually inserted in each opening in the rod guide. The rods were melted with a gas flame.
Continuous wire deposition was suggested. Continuous wire deposition, while more efficient, caused excessive heat in the area of metal deposition which affected the longevity of the wire guiding tubes and other apparatus in the vicinity of the deposition area.